Uphill Battle for Jack &#038 Jill

Tomorrow night, Jack &#038 Jill closes out its sophomore season on the WB with a possible wedding between the show's title characters (played by Ivan Sergei and Amanda Peet). But if the couple actually make it down the aisle, their honeymoon could be a short-lived affair: Insiders speculate that the buzz-starved series will fetch a cancellation notice from the network.

As part of the WB's unique programming strategy, Jack &#038 Jill moved into Felicity's Wednesday night timeslot in January  kicking off 13 weeks of consecutive original episodes. However, J&#038J failed to capitalize on the impressive ratings gains made by the resurgent college dramedy  which returns next week with the first of six all-new installments. As a result, "it's got less a shot [at being renewed] than Felicity does," points out Stacey Lynn Koerner of ad-buying firm TN Media. Marc Berman of Mediaweek is a tad more blunt: "There is little to no chance of it being picked up for a third season."

However, Jordan Levin, co-president of the WB's entertainment division, says no decision has been made about J&#038J's future. "I think it's hard to quantify Jack &#038 Jill's performance because you never know when something like a Temptation Island is going to wind up opposite it," says the exec, referring to Fox's smash hit reality series, which took a bite out of J&#038J's audience. Levin also suggests that the show's inability to hold on to Felicity's viewership simply "points out the strengths of Felicity."

In the end, J&#038J's savior may end up being the very culprit responsible for its current predicament: Temptation Island. Says Koerner: "If [the WB] really wanted to save the show, they could certainly say that all things being equal, it probably would have done as well [as Felicity] except it had this blockbuster young-adults hit to go up against out of nowhere."